After two months, a movie review!

I saw the movie The Purge last night with my friend Chris.  Chris is my movie buddy.  She and I both like thrillers and horror flicks.  We hide our eyes, scrunch down in our chairs and generally get really into it.

When we attended a screening of The Woman in Black we laughed at a girl behind us who actually screamed.  It was even funnier when I did the same thing. 

Anyway, The Purge is set in the year 2022.  For 12 hours, one night a year, anything is legal.  Emergency services are not available and people run amok in the streets killing the homeless, their bosses, people who annoy them or any random person.  For the rest of the year, everyone in America is much calmer, the economy is booming and unemployment is at 1%. 

Essentially, the movie shows that American's shut themselves up in their homes with elaborate security systems that turn your whole house into a panic room.  Those who don't are out in the streets either hunting the killers running amok or are the runners amok.  It's not safe to be outdoors.  Suburban people and college students fall under the sway of sociopaths who spend the whole year planning their Purge night. 

It had a good level of suspense and we were able to pick it apart afterwards.

We had questions about the practicality of such an event.  Wouldn't the inner cities just burn to the ground?  If you stole a car, did you get to keep it?  What if you bought a whole bunch of cocaine and sold it?  Would you still have to pay taxes on the big profit?  Insurance rates would skyrocket and would probably exclude any damage that occurred on Purge night.  Life insurance wouldn't pay out if someone died due to a Purge killing.  If you looted a store, did the store get to declare the items stolen?  If you were caught with the stuff would it still count as a crime if you tried to sell it while the Purge wasn't happening? 


And what about rules?  If you really didn't want to participate could you leave the country on holiday?  Cruise down to Mexico, or go to Canada for a little vaca?  What else could you do?  Rent a boat and be out on the ocean seems an option.  Or camping waaaaaaaaay out in the desert on top of a hill where you could see everything.  Wouldn't a group of families band together in the most secure house with their children, everyone bringing their guns and night vision goggles?  It would be potluck of course. How many people would commit crimes in order to be in jail when the Purge rolled around?  How were hospitals secured?


Then there was the conversation about how homes would be built differently.  The main character makes a ton of money selling Purge security systems. Wouldn't affluent areas have the security systems standard?  Or hired private security?  I'd think Blackwater would take that gig.  Wouldn't they set up the electric barbed wire around their homes, just for that night?  

We commented to each other that once all the poor people were killed off, a new level of poor would take their place.  First, the homeless are seen as leeches on society.  Pretty soon anyone who was renting would be offed, then those who lived in less than 3,000 square feet.  Old people, the disabled, and blah blah blah. 

I'd say it's worth Netflix-ing.  A solid 3 out of 5.  Because I know you want my opinion.

Amanda's beauty tip of the day:  If you are going to use benzoyl peroxide, don't use something over a 2.5% concentration.  It will just dry out your skin, 2.5% is plenty.